Daily News

February 4, 2005

A unique entrance scholarship called the "Inspiration Scholarship for Women in Engineering", featuring a mentoring program, has been launched by the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University. The new scholarship is being launched in conjunction with the Faculty's third annual Women in Engineering Exchange event on Feb. 5, 2005. The event is organized to introduce young women from Ontario high schools to the engineering profession.

February 3, 2005

Alumni will sweat out sweet memories on McMaster's courts during the annual Marauder Weekend Feb. 5-6. The memories begin Saturday in the Burridge Gymnasium. The first alumni match involves a women's basketball game at 10 a.m. followed by a men's match at 11 a.m. The games will be followed by a Marauders alumni luncheon at 11:30 a.m. in the mezzanine. A recruiting tour and lunch will take place Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in the Ivor Wynne Centre.

February 3, 2005

McMaster student Adam van Koeverden, Canada's only two-medal winner at the Athens Olympics, has been chosen Ontario athlete of the year for 2004 in a poll governed by the Ontario Sport Legends Hall of Fame. In winning, van Koeverden captures the Syl Apps Award in memory of the former Maple Leafs' star and world-calibre pole vaulter. Lori-Ann Muenzer, who won cycling gold in Athens, placed second in the voting, while McMaster University running back Jesse Lumsden was third.

February 3, 2005

More than 150 young women in Grades 9, 10 and 11 will travel to McMaster from 45 Ontario high schools this Saturday to learn about careers in engineering. The third annual Women in Engineering Experience is a full day event featuring guest speakers, discussions with engineering students and alumni, lab tours and the popular Fireball Show -- a science and engineering demonstration filled with experiments, pyrotechnics and multimedia presentations. There also will be an engineering design competition with members of the winning team each receiving a $1,000 scholarship to McMaster.

February 2, 2005

The long-held belief that older people perform slower and worse than younger people has been proven wrong. In a study published today in Neuron, psychologists from McMaster University discovered that the aging process actually improves certain abilities: Older people appear to be better and faster at grasping the big picture than their younger counterparts.

February 2, 2005

With most reeling from the hardships of recent winter storms, and now facing biting winds and short, overcast days, McMaster staff and students have a chance to come in out of the cold when the sixth annual Soulfood fair rolls into the McMaster University Student Centre Thursday, Feb. 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This one-day event, themed "Heart & Soul", is a celebration of mental, physical and emotional health and wellness. It emphasizes holistic well-being, with the balance of the body, mind and spirit.

February 1, 2005

McMaster's Computing & Information Services and Telecommunications departments amalgamated this week to form a new University Technology Services Department. "This change reflects our absolute commitment to improve service for our clients," says Debbie Barrett, chief information officer and author of McMaster's new University Technology Strategy. "The approach creates a single point of client service so that 'one call does it all' for technology support and services. The McMaster community deserves nothing less."

February 1, 2005

Mary Anne Chambers, minister of training, colleges and universities, toured McMaster's campus Tuesday, learning first-hand about some of University's newest developments and collaborative initiatives. Joined by McMaster President Peter George and provost Ken Norrie, the tour began with a stop in the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor in the DeGroote School of Business. The trading floor is a 90-square-metre educational facility that resembles an actual trading floor in a brokerage operation. It features 20 computer workstations and two large digital display boards that provide up-to-the-minute market data.

February 1, 2005

There is no throbbing Pink Floyd music. No lasers. No automatic tilting chairs. The William McCallion planetarium is as bare bones as they come, but when the lights go down and a gazillon stars materialize over your head, all is forgiven. McMaster's planetarium is a little-known gem at the University. Tucked away in the basement of the Burke Science Building, the planetarium's size initially takes you by surprise. It's a small circular space with barely enough room for 50 seats. A projector cum replica of Earth dominates the room.

January 31, 2005

As the McMaster community has grown in recent years, so too has the impact of its growth on the surrounding community. Issues related to traffic, parking, and students living off-campus are among the most common that generate concerns for local residents. In an effort to help address such issues, McMaster has retained the services of The Community Dispute Resolution Services of Hamilton (CDRS) to assist when conflict arises. The Office of the Associate Vice-President, Student Affairs has contracted CDRS to provide mediation services for issues arising in the local neighbourhood. Local residents, landlords, students living off campus  anyone in the surrounding area can take advantage of the services free of charge to help resolve individual or group conflict.

January 31, 2005

Ahmed Ghobarah, a structures and earthquake engineering specialist at McMaster, is traveling to Southeast Asia today (Jan. 31) as part of a Canadian engineering and science group selected to evaluate the effects of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami. The group includes earthquake, structural, coastal and geotechnical engineers.

January 28, 2005

McMaster has entered into an agreement with one of Korea's leading engineering universities. Negotiations between McMaster and Changwon National University (CNU) concluded Thursday, when the two institutions signed an agreement on student mobility and academic co-operation. CNU is one of the leading engineering universities in Kyongsangnam-do Province located in the southern part of Korea. Situated in the provincial capital of Changwon City, one of the leading manufacturing centers in Korea, CNU offers some of the regions best programs in megatronics, robotics, information technology, biotechnology, labour management, genetic engineering, environmental sciences, basic sciences and regional sciences. It was the first university in Korea to develop it's own intranet, electronic library, and cyber university education system approach and is currently developing a mobile campus funded by Korean telecom.

January 28, 2005

McMaster student Sammy Ali admits that one of the most challenging aspects of his university experience has been balancing his academic studies and extracurricular activities with his family and social life. A third-year student in the prestigious Bachelor of Health Sciences Program, Ali is also a volunteer camp counselor for autistic children, an editor of the student-run medical journal the McMaster Meducator, a volunteer tutor at Delta Secondary School in Hamilton, vice-president of the McMaster Golden Key academic honour society, a residence community advisor, and an anatomy and physiology teaching assistant.

January 28, 2005

McMaster students will pull out their formal dresses and dust of their suits for the seventh annual Charity Ball tonight (Friday, Jan. 28) at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Stacey Gemmill, McMaster student and Charity Ball co-ordinator, along with her team of McMaster Students Union (MSU) volunteers, has worked hard for almost a year to make the formal a success. The theme of the evening is New York, New York and like the city, Charity Ball will be bustling with different things to do and see.

January 28, 2005

Harald Stolberg had been teaching for 37 years but, even in retirement, was on the cutting edge, developing electronic enhancements for teaching evidence-based radiology to students of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. The internationally-recognized clinical professor died Tuesday at age 79.

January 27, 2005

Aboriginal high school, college, and university students, and those interested in returning to school for a career in healthcare, will be at McMaster Saturday for the second annual Aboriginal Health Conference. Organized by the McMaster Student International Health Initiative (SIHI), the McMaster Indigenous Studies Program and the Native Students Health Sciences office, the conference, called "Bridging the Gap: Moving from Awareness to Action", will take place in the McMaster University Student Centre (MUSC).

January 27, 2005

Dave Zalitack was fed up. Not only was he paying Dalton McGuinty, Paul Martin and the folks at PetroCanada and TD Canada Trust to keep a second vehicle on the road, but he was paying McMaster to park it. He could think of a few better things to do with his money. Zalitack, an electrician for McMaster's Physical Plant, sold that second car two years ago and bought his first bus pass: a shiny, white, aerodynamic number with magnetic-striping and "Burlington Transit" inscribed in bold letters on one side. He cancelled his McMaster Parking permit and instead swiped that snazzy compact card each time he wanted to ride Burlington Transit to downtown Hamilton, where he could hop on a Mac-bound HSR bus.

January 27, 2005

The word "fortunate" sprung to fourth-year kinesiology student Jonathan Little's mind several times at the Faculty of Social Sciences Annual Awards Assembly last night. "I have been extremely fortunate for being a part of McMaster Social Sciences and the Department of Kinesiology," said Little, who accepted three scholarships, was named to the Provost's Honour Roll, Dean's Honour List and retained an entrance scholarship based on his academic achievement. "The combination of the outstanding academics and extracurricular activities has provided me with an extremely solid foundation of life skills that I will take with me wherever I go."

January 26, 2005

Engineers and organizations can now transform technical ideas into commercial ventures while developing entrepreneurial and business skills through a single, innovative program unique in North America. McMaster's Faculty of Engineering is offering a new Master of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MEEi) degree program through the recently established Xerox Centre for Engineering Entrepreneurship & Innovation (XCEEi).

January 26, 2005

Family doctors, Elizabeth Shaw of Hamilton and Stephen (Sandy) Buchman of Mississauga, both graduates of McMaster's medical program in 1981, have been named Family Physician of the Year for the Southern Ontario Region by the Ontario College of Family Physicians.